Read Ebook: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson Vol. 9 (of 9) Being His Autobiography Correspondence Reports Messages Addresses and Other Writings Official and Private by Jefferson Thomas Washington H A Henry Augustine Editor

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, AND A COPIOUS INDEX TO EACH VOLUME, AS WELL AS A GENERAL INDEX TO THE WHOLE,

BY THE EDITOR H. A. WASHINGTON.

NEW YORK: H. W. DERBY, 625 BROADWAY. 1861.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by TAYLOR & MAURY, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Columbia.

STEREOTYPED BY THOMAS R. SMITH. 82 & 84 Beekman Street.

MISCELLANEOUS.

A MANUAL OF PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE.

PREFACE

The Constitution of the United States, establishing a Legislature for the Union under certain forms, authorizes each branch of it "to determine the rules of its own proceedings." The Senate have accordingly formed some rules for its own government: but those going only to few cases, they have referred to the decision of their President, without debate and without appeal, all questions of order arising either under their own rules, or where they have provided none. This places under the discretion of the President a very extensive field of decision, and one which, irregularly exercised, would have a powerful effect on the proceedings and determinations of the House. The President must feel, weightily and seriously, this confidence in his discretion: and the necessity of recurring, for its government, to some known system of rules, that he may neither leave himself free to indulge caprice or passion, nor open to the imputation of them. But to what system of rules is he to recur, as supplementary to those of the Senate? To this there can be but one answer: to the systems of regulations adopted by the government of some one of the parliamentary bodies within these States, or of that which has served as a prototype to most of them. This last is the model which we have studied; while we are little acquainted with the modifications of it in our several States. It is deposited, too, in publications possessed by many, and open to all. Its rules are probably as wisely constructed for governing the debates of a considerative body, and obtaining its true sense, as any which can become known to us; and the acquiescence of the Senate hitherto under the references to them, has given them the sanction of their approbation.

Considering, therefore, the law of proceedings in the Senate as composed of the precepts of the Constitution, the regulations of the Senate, and where these are silent, of the rules of Parliament, I have here endeavored to collect and digest so much of these as is called for in ordinary practice, collating the parliamentary with the senatorial rules, both where they agree and where they vary. I have done this, as well to have them at hand for my own government, as to deposit with the Senate the standard by which I judge and am willing to be judged. I could not doubt the necessity of quoting the sources of my information; among which Mr. Hatsel's most valuable book is pre-eminent; but as he has only treated some general heads, I have been obliged to recur to other authorities, in support of a number of common rules of practice to which his plan did not descend. Sometimes each authority cited supports the whole passage. Sometimes it rests on all taken together. Sometimes the authority goes only to a part of the text, the residue being inferred from known rules and principles. For some of the most familiar forms, no written authority is or can be quoted; no writer having supposed it necessary to repeat what all were presumed to know. The statement of these must rest on their notoriety.

I am aware, that authorities can often be produced in opposition to the rules which I lay down as parliamentary. An attention to dates will generally remove their weight. The proceedings of Parliament in ancient times, and for a long while, were crude, multiform, and embarrassing. They have been, however, constantly advancing towards uniformity and accuracy; and have now obtained a degree of aptitude to their object, beyond which little is to be desired or expected.

Yet I am far from the presumption of believing, that I may not have mistaken the parliamentary practice in some cases; and especially in those minor forms, which, being practised daily, are supposed known to everybody, and therefore have not been committed to writing. Our resources in this quarter of the globe, for obtaining information on that part of the subject, are not perfect. But I have begun a sketch, which those who come after me will successively correct and fill up, till a code of rules shall be formed for the use of the Senate, the effects of which may be accuracy in business, economy of time, order, uniformity, and impartiality.

NOTE.

$The rules and practices peculiar to the Senate are printed in small type. Those of Parliament are in large.$

A MANUAL OF PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE.

IMPORTANCE OF RULES.

THE IMPORTANCE OF ADHERING TO RULES.

Mr. Onslow, the ablest among the Speakers of the House of Commons, used to say, "It was a maxim he had often heard when he was a young man, from old and experienced members, that nothing tended more to throw power into the hands of administration and those who acted with the majority of the House of Commons, than a neglect of, or departure from, the rules of proceeding; that these forms, as instituted by our ancestors, operated as a check, and control, on the actions of the majority; and that they were, in many instances, a shelter and protection to the minority, against the attempts of power."

LEGISLATURE.

PRIVILEGE.

The time necessary for going to and returning from Congress not being defined, it will of course be judged of in every particular case by those who will have to decide the case.$

This privilege from arrest, privileges of course against all process, the disobedience is punishable by an attachment of the person; as a subpoena ad respondendum, or testificandum, or a summons on a jury; and with reason, because a member has superior duties to perform in another place.

$When a Representative is withdrawn from his seat by summons, the 47,700 people whom he represents lose their voice in debate and vote, as they do in his voluntary absence: when a Senator is withdrawn by summons, his State loses half its voice in debate and vote, as it does in his voluntary absence. The enormous disparity of evil admits no comparison.

ELECTIONS.

QUALIFICATIONS.

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote.

Immediately after they shall be assembled, in consequence of the first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three classes. The seats of the Senators of the first class shall be vacated at the end of the second year; of the second class, at the expiration of the fourth year; and of the third class, at the expiration of the sixth year; so that one-third may be chosen every second year; and if vacancies happen, by resignation or otherwise, during the recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary appointments, until the next meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies.

The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several States; and the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature.

No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.

$The provisional apportionments of Representatives made in the Constitution in 1787, and afterwards by Congress, were as follows:--

QUORUM.

CALL OF THE HOUSE.

They rise that their persons may be recognized; the voice, in such a crowd, being an inefficient verification of their presence. But in so small a body as the Senate of the United States, the trouble of rising cannot be necessary.

ABSENCE.

SPEAKER.

ADDRESS.

COMMITTEES.

COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE.

EXAMINATION OF WITNESSES.

ARRANGEMENT OF BUSINESS.

A settled order of business is, however, necessary for the government of the presiding person, and to restrain individual members from calling up favorite measures, or matters under their special patronage, out of their just turn. It is useful also for directing the discretion of the House, when they are moved to take up a particular matter, to the prejudice of others having a priority of right to their attention in the general order of business.

$In Senate, the bills and other papers which are in possession of the House, and in a state to be acted upon, are arranged every morning, and brought on in the following order:

In this way we do not waste our time in debating what shall be taken up: we do one thing at a time, follow up a subject while it is fresh, and till it is done with; clear the House of business, gradatim as it is brought on, and prevent, to a certain degree, its immense accumulation towards the close of the session.

Arrangement, however, can only take hold of matters in possession of the House. New matter may be moved at any time, when no question is before the House. Such are original motions, and reports on bills. Such are, bills from the other House, which are received at all times, and receive their first reading as soon as the question then before the House is disposed of; and bills brought in on leave, which are read first whenever presented. So, messages from the other House respecting amendments to bills, are taken up as soon as the House is clear of a question, unless they require to be printed for better consideration. Orders of the day may be called for, even when another question is before the House.$

ORDER.

ORDER RESPECTING PAPERS.

ORDER IN DEBATE.

ORDERS OF THE HOUSE.

But where an order is made that any particular matter be taken up on a particular day, there a question is to be put when it is called for, Whether the House will now proceed to that matter? Where orders of the day are on important or interesting matter, they ought not to be proceeded on till an hour at which the House is usually full--

$Where the Constitution authorizes each House to determine the rule of its proceedings, it must mean in those cases, legislative, executive, or judiciary, submitted to them by the Constitution, or in something relating to these, and necessary towards their execution. But orders and resolutions are sometimes entered in their journals, having no relation to these, such as acceptances of invitations to attend orations, to take part in processions, &c. These must be understood to be merely conventional among those who are willing to participate in the ceremony, and are therefore, perhaps, improperly placed among the records of the House.$

PETITIONS.

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